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How to Add or Remove Items from “New” Context Menu in Windows

In Windows, whenever we right-click on Desktop or in Windows Explorer, we get “New” menu which allows us to create new folder, new shortcut and new files using various known file types. It helps us in creating new files, folders and shortcuts easily and quickly.

Sometimes you may want to remove a few unwanted items from “New” menu to reduce its size or to restrict others from creating new files or shortcuts or you may want to add a few new items to “New” menu such as new file types, etc.

So today in this tutorial, we’ll tell you how to customize or modify the “New” menu in Windows to add or remove items from it. This method will work in all Windows versions:

METHOD A: To Add an Item in “New” Menu

2. Now look for a sub-key having same name as the file type which you want to add in “New” menu. For example, if you want to add XML file type to “New” menu, look for .xml key under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key.

3. Now right-click on it and select “New -> Key” option. It’ll create a new key, give it nameShellNew

NOTE: Sometimes this method might not work for a few file types in newer Windows versions. In such condition, you’ll also need to create a dummy template file after following the above steps as mentioned in following steps:

5. Create a new file of same file type which you want to add in “New” menu (in our example we wanted to add XML file type to “New” menu, so we’ll create a new .xml file), give it any name and copy it to C:\Windows\ShellNew folder.

6. Now in Registry Editor, create another String with the name FileName in same key where you created NullFile string in Step 4 and set FileName string value to the full path of the file pasted in “C:\Windows\ShellNew” folder.

Since in our example, the full path of Template.xml file isC:\Windows\ShellNew\Template.xml, We have set the same as value of FileName string in Registry.

Now the new file type will appear in “New” menu as shown in following screenshot: